Will Ichigo be able to stop the invasion, or will he too fall before the might of the Vandereich?
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Tite Kubo
Translation: Joe Yamazaki
What They Say
A mysterious group calling themselves the Vandenreich launches a simultaneous attack against the Soul Society and Ichigo in the World of the Living. After invading the Soul Society, the Vandenreich’s strongest warriors launch a relentless attack as the Soul Reaper captains start falling one by one. It will be up to General Captain Yamamoto unleashes to defeat the Vandenreich’s king and save the Soul Society!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The volume starts off with a helpful little tidbit describing the twins Royd and Loyd, Quincies with the ability to mimic others. It soon becomes clear that the one Yamamoto defeated was Royd, the twin with the capability to copy appearance and mind but not powers. To make matters worse, Ywach himself appears, explaining that he was unsurprisingly turned down during negotiations with Aizen. Ywach then proceeds to steal Yamamoto’s Bankai before striking a death blow, though the old man manages to impressively keep struggling even after being cleaved in half. Of course he doesn’t last after receiving such a deadly wound, but just as the Stern Ritter prepare to leave the devastated Soul Society, Ichigo breaks out of his cage and onto the scene. Ichigo is quickly struck down by Yhwach, but to the Quincy king’s surprise, Ichigo stops his attack using Blut Vene. After some talk regarding Quincies and Ichigo’s mother, Yhwach prepares to drag Ichigo back to his castle. Due to a mysterious time limit the Vandenreich are forced to retreat, and when Ichigo tries to stop him the powerful foe easily breaks the substitute soul reaper’s blade.
With the enemy having temporarily retreated, the Soul Society is left to lick its wounds and figure out how to recover. On the other hand, Ichigo finds himself at a loss when Kurotsuchi tells him that zanpakuto broken when in Bankai cannot be properly repaired. Before he can get too upset, though, the mysterious Zero Squad comes to visit the devastated Soul Society. Though they are only five members strong, their combined strength is supposedly stronger than that of the whole of the court guard squads.
The rest of the volume is spent with Rukia, Byakuya, Renji, and Ichigo being taken to the various palaces of these five in the royal palace in order to regain their strength. Even with this powerful help, will Ichigo be able to regain his Bankai?
In Summary
This volume is something of a transition, wrapping up the initial assault by the enemies while setting up the training to come. As a result, it’s definitely not quite as high intensity as the last volume, with a lot more talking and a lot less thrilling battle. The way that the volume starts up is also a tad awkward, quickly jamming in some exposition in order to make sense of a “twist.” Yhwach at least gets to show off his rather impressive strength, easily swatting down his opponents. On the other hand, he seems to imply yet another twist surrounding Ichigo, which feels more than a little silly considering how many secret origins and surprises have already been used regarding his character. Hopefully things pick up again in the next volume, but for now this remains a decent entry into the series, and at the very least it introduces some fairly interesting new characters at the end.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: B+
Package Rating: B+
Text/Translation Rating: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released by: Viz Media
Release Date: October 1st, 2013
MSRP: $9.99